Changing Lives: Women in Northern Ontario

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

In this intriguing collection of essays, scholars and community
activists discuss a wide range of topics having to do with Northern
Ontario women. Discussions of health, education, economic status,
ethnicity, and political activism are presented in a variety of formats,
including poetry, interviews, scholarly essays, and, in one case, a
“dialogue.” Two of the essays are in French. Given this diversity,
it is a tribute to the editors that the volume remains as cohesive as it
does. The main theme, they tell us, is how “women are changed by life
in the north, and in turn [how] they have themselves changed the
north.”

As in any collection, some of the contributions are more effective than
others. There are some very good historical studies by Nancy Forestell
(on the impact of hazardous mine labour on Timmins families), Linda
Ambrose (on the Women’s Institutes), and Varpu Lindstrom (on Finnish
women in lumber camps). Photographs provide a useful context for some of
the contributions. There is very little sociological jargon, so the
collection is accessible to the general reader. Furthermore, nearly all
the contributions are groundbreaking in dealing with topics that have
received very little attention in the published literature.

A couple of factors detract from the book’s usefulness. First,
although the title implies that women’s experiences throughout
Northern Ontario will be studied, the collection emphasizes northeastern
Ontario and Sudbury in particular. Certainly this area has not been well
studied, and so the emphasis is legitimate, but one hopes that more work
can be done to compare women’s experiences in the east and west, as
well as in the far north. Second, it is not always evident what the
contributors feel is unique about the experience of women in the
Northern Ontario setting. Discussions of lesbian life, women
entrepreneurs, and housework all seem typical of women’s experiences
across Canada.

Nevertheless, Changing Lives is a valuable contribution to both
Northern and women’s

studies.